I’ll never pull over on a guy if he’s already committed. I grew up thinking I’m going to give you a certain amount of payment, you’ve got to give me a certain amount of pavement. Its okay to drive a different line. If you confuse the other driver’s game plan, that’s all fair. But the bobbing and weaving stuff doesn’t just belong.— Terry Earwood, Going Faster - Master The Art of Race Driving

Archive for October, 2009

The first event in the 2009 Karting Singapore rental kart series saw 19 participants take to the track on an early Saturday morning. The event was held at the Kartright track and was the first of three race events that were planned to mark the end of the race calendar in 2009 - with the remaining races to be held in November and December respectively. Given the strong interest seen in the registrations, the organisers are studying amendments to the format so as to increase the overall number of participants for each event.

The winner of this inaugural event was Andre Tan who completed the 15 lap Final race in a time of 12 mins 08.013 secs; 7 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Amran Mohamed.

The top 6 medal positions were:

1st - Andre Tan

2nd - Amran Mohamed

3rd - Keong Liam

4th - Charles Teo

5th - Andrew Loke

6th - Fuji Sartono

The fastest lap of the day also goes to Andre Tan, who was one of 2 drivers to go under the 48 sec mark. Andre lapped 47.712 on the 8th lap of the Championship Race with Charles Teo as the other driver to clock his fastest of 47.786 on the 5th lap of the Championship Race.

The organisers would like to extend its appreciation to all the registrants that signed up, the 19 participants, the track officials as well as the volunteers who took time to make the event possible.

We were particularly impressed with the support provided by the Kartright team of directors and staff; from the trackside support, as well as a very even and consistent track surface, not to mention that the karts were tuned to be consistent (and this was very visible when watching the karts on the straights) and finally to the availability of data from a recently installed AMB tracking solution.

The results of the championship as well as the race timings are as follows.

As posted via the Kartmore website, here is an invitational non RMC event that is scheduled for late November.

The first of it’s kind and with intentions of becoming an annual event, the Redwhite Sangari Kart Prix is a one-make Rotax engines event featuring 3 categories (Junior, MicroMax, Senior) and substantial prize money ($4,000 USD for 1st). The event will be held at the Sepang International Karting Circuit in Malaysia on the 22nd of November. Entries close early in November.

Round 9 of the Plentong Open was held on the 11 October 2009. This was to be the second last race of the season and was raced on the track layout E, a 1.265km lap distance of 15 laps for a total of 18.975km.

The results of Heat 1 & 2 are as follows.

Here is a kart mounted video of some of the action. Watch what happens at 8.01 mins into the video

For the first staging in Asia, at Macau, a Special Administrative Region of the Republic of China, the World Karting Championship didn’t fail to attract attention or to disappoint. The rain had the last word in causing a premature end after 18 of the scheduled 25 laps, resulting in a first world crown for the Frenchman Arnaud Kozlinski.

After having twice failed to take the title finishing on the second step of the World Championship podium (in 2003 and 2004), Arnaud Kozlinski (CRG-Maxter) has found his holy grail at the first Championship staged in Asia, on the circuit at Macau. The Frenchman took victory despite rain which began to fall shortly after the start of the race which was finally halted after 75% of the race distance had been covered.

“I was leading the race until I had motor problems, just as I had one month previously when I was about to be crowned European Champion. Emotionally that was all very difficult ! But I was determined to return even stronger and I dedicate this victory to everybody who has supported me, particularly my parents. When I saw the first spots of rain early in the final, I said to myself the race is going to be long and difficult. There would be no room for error. I was lucky to have Aaro Vainio in front of me. He was very quick and in some respect, he showed me the tricky places. Both of us had an opportunity to pull away from those behind us. Then I had an opportunity to take advantage of what I had learned and pass him. The conditions were by now increasingly difficult and then the Clerk of the Course brought out the red flag. It is true that conditions by now had become even more difficult. But still I did not realised that I really was World Champion.”

Long time leader of the Final, the young Finnish driver Aaro Vainio (Maranello-Maxter) confirmed his standing as the revelation of the year and a real future prospect for motorsport in Finland. And if this title had eluded him, he took it with an enormous smile.

“This is my first season in Super KF. I have become European Champion and I finished second in the World Championship. That is quite a record to achieve. In fact just when I had seen that Arnaud was catching me when the rain came, I had tried to defend but he was just a little bit too quick. It’s only a little disappointment as I am really very happy.”

It is only proper to mention the superb spectacle and a memorable start of the race by Manuel Renaudi (Gillard-Parilla) who had made a strong get away, the defending double World Champion Marco Ardigo (Tony Kart-Vortex) and the Belgian Jonathan Thonon (CRG-Maxter), who were both passed by Ben Hanley (Maranello-Maxter) at the end of a superb race for 3rd place. Progressing well from 16th place on the grid, Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart-Vortex) completed the top 5 behind Jonathon Thonon but in front of the other Belgian Yannick de Brabander (Intrepid-TM), the Frenchman Manuel Renaudie (Gillard-Parilla), the Italian Allesandro Bressan (Kosmic-Vortex), who will regret for a long time a non-finish in the Pre-Final which condemned him to start the Final in 34th.

Supporting the World Championship races, Macau also hosted the Asia-Pacific KF3 Championship (for Juniors from 13 to 15 years). British driver Jordan King (Maranello-TM) dominated the weekend and finished the Final in front of New Zealander Arie Hutton (Tony Kart-Vortex) and the Italian Giuliano Maria Niceta (Tony Kart-Vortex), winner one month ago of the KF3 World Cup.